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by Simon Jimenez
A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time.
"This is when your life begins."
Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her; all she has left is work. Alone and adrift, she lives only for the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky.
A boy, broken by his past.
The scarred child does not speak, his only form of communication the beautiful and haunting music he plays on an old wooden flute. Captured by his songs and their strange, immediate connection, Nia decides to take the boy in. And over years of starlit travel, these two outsiders discover in each other the things they lack. For him, a home, a place of love and safety. For her, an anchor to the world outside of herself.
For both of them, a family.
But Nia is not the only one who wants the boy. The past hungers for him, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.
"This extraordinary science fiction epic, which delves deep into the perils of failing to learn from one's mistakes, is perfect for fans of big ideas and intimate reflections." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A lyrical and moving narrative of space travel, found families, and lost loves set against an evocative space-opera background." - Booklist (starred review)
"This powerful, suspenseful story asks us to consider what we'd sacrifice for progress—or for the ones we love. The best of what science fiction can be: a thought-provoking, heart-rending story about the choices that define our lives." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The boy is reminiscent of Amy Bellafonte from Justin Cronin's The Passage, yet the journey itself evokes Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One, creating crossover appeal for readers who enjoy a bit of emotional attachment with their time travel. - Tina Panik, Library Journal
"The Vanished Birds finds an intimate heartbeat of longing in a saga of galactic progress and its crushing fallout...A novel of vast scope that yet makes time for compassion, wonder, and poetry." - Indra Das, author of The Devourers
"The future world-building is rich and smart, the prose assured, and the story both intensely personal and a blistering commentary on capitalism and colonialism...Highly recommended." - Kate Elliott, author of Black Wolves
This information about The Vanished Birds was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Simon Jimenez's short fiction has appeared in Canyon Voices and 100 Word Story's anthology of flash fiction, Nothing Short Of. He received his MFA from Emerson College. The Vanished Birds is his first novel.
Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch
In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.
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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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